Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-07-27
ARSENIC-EATING,
A Habit Whose Victims Belong Almost
Exclusively to the Female Sex.

plain about the sale of arsenic waters
to anwary young women who want to
beautify their compilations. One moth
er in Harlem wrote that her daughter
had been using the waters without her
knowledge, and she feared that if the
waters contained as much arsenic as
their makers claimed they must be
strongly impregnated with poison. She
also raised the point that if the waters
contained no poison the manufacturer
was an impostor. DR.. Cyrus Edison
analysed the articles and found but
slight traces of the poison in them.
The principal danger from the waters,
it is said, is that those who use them
think that it is not dangerous to eat
arsenic, and are thus tempted to try q
cheap solution of the poison. Death
is likely to result from the slightest
overdose.
DR.. William A. Hammond talked
freely the other day about arsenic.
He regarded arsenic-eaters in the
same light as cocaine-eaters- that is,
he had yet to see one. cit is not a
habit in this country" said Dr. Ha M
mond, "though arsenic is often pre-
scribed. We often have to use large
quantities of bromides for curing
epilepsy or other troubles of the nerv-
Gus system, and one effect is to pro-
duce pimples, especially on the face.
Arsenic is used conformity with the
bromides to prevent these pimples
and also to cure them. But 1 would
no more think of allowing women to
use arsenic at their own sweet will
than cocaine or any other active
agent Arsenic is useful in depraved
states of the system, such as are pro-
duced from malaria, and physicians
constantly prescribe it in these cases.
I have never known OF heard of a case
in which it was taken to
produce exhilarating effects such
as opium causes, any more than
[ have heard of cocaine used
for such purposes. Arsenic is poison
Gus in small doses, and consequently
differs from cocaine. In medicine it is
generally used as arsenious acid. Two
and half grains killed healthy, TO-
bust girl of nineteen years in thirty
six hours. Under circumstances favor
able to the poison from two to three
grains will kill an adult. The doses
used in medicine vary from one-fftieth
to one-twentieth of a grain. These
arsenic waters contain much less than
that, and consequently have no effect.
They, therefore, are fraud, and the
man who makes them ought to be ar
rested. The Syrian peasants use ar
senic-the men to improve their wind
so they can climb mountains more east
ly and the women to improve their
compilations. They have been known
to take six grains in one day. They
begin by taking extremely small doses.
Arsenic has no effect on horse. In
one instance horse took $50 grains
without any result y
Another doctor said it was impos-
eaters in this city, because they are a
class that do not often come under q
physicians observation. yet" said
he, ''the number is large, though you
can not say that it is growing The
population of this city is increasing,
whereas they are simply maintaining
their proportion. That is about the
case with the arsenic-eaters; they are
keeping up their proportion of the
other idiots. Some actors, q low class
of women, and even some members of
the best society eat arsenic or use it in
some form to improve their complex
IONS 1t gives them q certain pallor
that they consider desirable. They
begin by taking small doses, and grad
ually work up to large amount,
and then when they think it is time to
leave off they gradually lessen the
dose-or, rather, they try to, for the
habit, once formed, is extremely diff
cult to abandon. Those who taEe ar
senic say that it has pleasant effect,
though not like opium, morphine or
hashish, and the SYSTEMS demands for
it are not so imperative as in the case
of eisher of these drugs. I have seen
arsenic-eaters shut up in prison who
did not complain as bitterly as the
morphine OF opium users would have
done under the circumstances.
The reporter visited q number of
East Side drug stores and talked with
the proprietors about their experience
with arsenic-eaters. One druggist in
ten by fifteen shop said that his ar
senic customers were not confined to
one class of society; they embraced
people in all walks of life. though al
most all were women. eve dom want
to sell it, said he, ''and won't sell it
without a prescription; but they will
have it, just now there is demand
for these waters, and we have to put
them on the counter There is not
enough arsenic in them to hurt any
body, but people ask for them, and if
you don't have them they say: oh,
well, we can get them at another
store We Nave perhaps twenty GUS
toners here every week who are
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